Against the background of a severe housing shortage, falling numbers of new-build housing units and a skills shortage in the house-building sector, it accuses the industry of being 'slow to modernise and make use of more efficient and faster ways of building'.

The solution it suggests is for more homes to be constructed offsite. Such homes, it claims, are 'high quality, reliable, more productive and can be highly energy efficient'.

"What do we need to do to get the industry to do things differently – to change its practices towards those that result in greater productivity, more innovative construction practices, products and materials, and the sustainability of both the industry and the built environment that results from its endeavours?"

It also involves a large-scale, quantitative survey of such stakeholders and a focus group to consider the research findings. Readers of this blog are encouraged to participate in the project's interviews, survey and focus group.

Chiming with many of Farmer's core recommendation principles, these include: finance, custom and practice, knowledge/training, regulatory compliance, communication, and clientspecification. (This is not an exhaustive list, and people are welcome to suggest other factors that have a bearing on materials choices.)

The anticipated project outputs include a detailed report on purchasing decision-making in the construction industrysupply chain, and briefing notes for industry stakeholders in respect of how to overcome the multiple prima facie barriers to innovation and modernisation that the research will address.

For more information on how to get involved, contact Dr John McCormack, Centre for Sustainable Communities, University of Hertfordshire. 07811 352114 [email protected]

This article was originally published here on 15 May 2017 by ICE. It was written by John McCormack, Research Fellow, University of Hertfordshire’s Centre for Sustainable Communities.